@Arthur: thanks for all those tips. I am in Greenslopes / Stones Cnr area -- there is a great path for runners from Stones Cnr towards Mt Gravatt through a park and next to the freeway. It is also a bikepath but too uneven and curvy for road bike training I think. I have posted a separate thread with my training diary in this part of the forum (titled Winter Training Diary or something like that). My training has been interrupted by a happy event (birth of my first child) and an unhappy one (hit by car while out riding), but I am soldiering on! I will use the Gold Coast Sprintman as my practice event, and do Noosa in late October. Will try to train up to 2km distance before then in the swim, and am planning to switch from 25m pool to 50m pool v soon, as I feel I have outgrown the shorter lengths (plenty of touching in, pushing off, but no enough actual swimming!) Not sure if you can recommend a safe way for a beginner to train open-water swimming around Brisbane?

Repeats of Mt Gravatt is also good training for climbing Noosa Hill on the outward leg. Coming back down is good practice for coming down Noosa Hill at 80kmh + on the inbound leg (just don't do that speed down Mt Gravatt )

Don't worry too much about transitioning from 25m to 50m (although Sommerville House ha a very nice 50m pool that the public can use) and as long as you are comfortable doing the distance in the pool, that's good enough for the open water - in the event it is all about finding a good rhythm.... That said, a good drill you can practice is "head up" freestyle - like water polo - it helps you get used to spotting the markers out in the open water during the event. Pick a spot at the end of the pool and practice lifting your head every couple of strokes to sight it.

I'm disappointed Sedition. I was hoping to see you in Canberra for the Olympic where the beers would have been on me!

I'm back training for Cairns so will start posting in the training thread.

Which event in Cairns are you looking at ?I have faint hopes of doing the Challenge. I think I am running out of time to get the swim happening though. I could do the OD event on the week before, but I want to do the RRR, which is running at exactly the same time.

What about the swim? I am keen to do the 2/80/20 but am worried about the swim. Where do you swim, and in June, will the water be cold enough to be a wet suit swim? I am not too worried about the 80/20 bike run.

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